


Skyfall

by traveler_spawn



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:22:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27526060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traveler_spawn/pseuds/traveler_spawn
Summary: Beyond Light (sequel of sorts to Bond)  The Darkness didn't break them, but it's now a part of them.  Guardian and Ghost must deal with the long-overdue reckoning that they are forging their own path and how it affects their relationship.  (Beyond Light and subsequent seasons)
Relationships: Female Guardian & Ghost (Destiny)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	1. Elephant

**Author's Note:**

> (HI. I finished Beyond Light. The main campaign at least. This spawned. I claim artistic license for theorycrafting, otherwise please enjoy.)
> 
> \-----------------

It’s a repeat of the aftermath of Uldren’s death. Only Selene can’t tell if this is worse. She and Ozy had agreed. Always, _always_ work out their problems. It’s common sense, really. She is him; he is her. Traveler knows they don’t want to end up being like other Guardian/Ghost pairs that can’t get along or barely tolerate each other. That is something Selene can’t understand—and honestly, she doesn’t want to. It’s a nightmarish scenario, one that makes her mind scream ‘No!’ and her soul shudder. To be so intimate with someone who…could possibly hate you? _Nyet_. 

But Europa has changed the dynamic. If it wasn’t clear before that she was forging her own path, a barely sanctioned Vanguard one, well… Spider’s offer of sanctuary, the mental realization that more than likely she was going to deal with the Praxic Order—aka Aunor at some point—if she wanted to get _utterly_ paranoid, Ikora probably already had a Hidden watching her. (Traveler was Drifter starting to rub off on her?) 

Selene reports and files her findings, her experiences. Deals once again with the stares and whispers—they’re **_legion_** now. The Traveler’s apparent pet Chosen, now wielding Darkness—incorruptible, and even more boggling, she’s not been struck down by the god-orb upon returning to the City. (Something that Selene—and she knows Ozy too-had secretly feared). Instead all seems quite normal, even in the medical facilities directly under the Traveler. She undergoes quarantine, purification—it removes the lingering remnants of the Pyramid’s energies, but not the Stasis itself. That’s something Selene suspects only the Traveler can do. In fact, her Light…it feels stronger. Reinforced. Had been ever since that day in the City…of the almost-Collapse. That single wave of Light-slamming over every Guardian, everywhere they were to be found… 

Ozy had felt the same way. At least before they’d left for Europa…. that first time. Biting her lower lip, Selene looks at her Ghost. He’s offline, wrapped up in his favorite scarves and sleeping in his little basket-nest. She still can feel his self-recrimination, his guilt—and his sheer relief on when she finally fully attuned to Stasis, and she was…still her? The best way to put it…? He has the ability to tap into her own powers—well formerly her Light if he so wishes—and Selene had known, knew that he’d be able to do the same as for the Darkness inside her. Perhaps she should have pressed the matter, but that would have been cruel. A Ghost is an incarnation of pure Light—so Selene knew that he’d been struggling to understand the reasoning for using the Darkness’ gift. 

_Selene I’m sorryI’msorryI’msorry!!_

With a sigh, Selene ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back. Her new ship is heading back to Europa—fueled, provisioned, and ready for only Light-knows-how long this stay will be. Vanguard Medical is particularly pissed at Zavala, they’d argued that she needed more recovery time. Looking at herself in the mirror, Selene can’t blame them. She’s skinny(er), on the point of losing muscle definition. Her sleep has improved, but there are still dark shadows under her eyes. A quick blood test makes the scanner nearly overload with warnings. She’s still courting malnutrition, and her body temperature’s still below normal. Irritation spikes in Selene, but she forces herself to close her eyes. Inhale, exhale. It’s not the machine’s fault. She’s…tired, angry due to not eating yet, and…just wants to remove the ‘elephant in the room’ she and Ozy are facing.

_I…just want to think a little bit. I’m still here! I’m still here! Please…I’m still here._

She’s woken up to his gentle pulses—inward, against her mind, little touches of Light, and one time, one faint little touch of Dark. Hesitant, as if he weren’t too sure. It’d felt like cold crystal against her skin-not unpleasant but jarring. His way of telling her that he’s still here, still her support, but just…not talking. Sighing again, Selene refocuses on the mirror. Picking up a pair of scissors, she begins to cut her hair—it’s grown out over the past several weeks. As the auburn locks fall onto the towel that’s covering the sink, Selene tries not to pay attention to the fact that her eyes are now a deeper shade of blue.

The same color of the ice that currently runs in her veins.


	2. Ghost-Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eris finds herself offering comfort and advice to the Guardian's Ghost on Europa.

Eris is alone at the campfire when Ozy approaches her. It’s not normal for the Ghost to be separated from Selene—at least not in such a dangerous place. 

“Little Light?” As always, there’s a sliver-stab of pain in her very core when dealing with a Ghost. Even more so with Selene and Ozy. Ozy hunches in on himself, shivering.

“Can we-can we—brrr…” He shivers. “C-c-c-can we t-t-talk?”

“You should be inside with Selene!” Eris scolds. “Is she awake?”

“Can’t…can’t really tal-talk about…” Ozy shivers again. Eris hesitated-then summoned Hive fire to her free palm. She held it under Ozy, who sagged in relief. Tainted as it was, it was heat and he was at least used to those energies.

“Thank you.” 

“You should be in bed with Selene.” Eris repeated. The Guardian was in deep slumber-a side effect of her wielding Stasis. Even with how quickly the pair have taken to the new discipline, Eris knows the Darkness is bearing down hard on them. 

“I…” Ozy’s fins twist. “I couldn’t. I…” He looks up at Eris with his single blue eye. “I’ve been a bad Ghost, Eris.”

“Bad Ghost?” Eris repeated. She didn’t understand. Ozy was devoted to Selene’s well-being, and vice versa. If he was talking about Selene’s choice to learn Stasis, Eris had expected that the two would have struggled—Ozy was pure Light, and Selene…was no longer as such. Ozy looked down, feeling his circuits twist. How even to begin?

“Ever since we came to Europa…” Slowly, the story tumbled out. His fear of the Pyramids, of the realization that it had been Stasis that had crippled him and Selene on Luna, of the Darkness possessing him. And then…. that fight with Eramis, the subsequent estrangement.

“It…it used to be simple.” Ozy whispered. Eris remained silent, listening. “Protect the City. Help people. Risen, Lightless. Fight the enemies of humanity, of the Light. When…” He sounded forlorn, and it tugged at Eris’ heart.

“When did it become so complicated?”

“It always was complicated.” Eris murmured. Ozy looked up at her. “You two never were fully aware of just how complicated it was until the Red War. And even then…” It had taken Cayde’s death and Selene’s grief-stricken rampage across the Shore to…break the eggshell, so to speak. Once the rose-colored glasses were well and truly broken, there was no going back. Even now Eris suspected there were machinations of the Vanguard and their allies that Selene-for all the glory, honor, and the trust that was given to her…she would possibly never learn of. 

“I don’t know how to talk to her.” Ozy whispered. “I…I was afraid. I failed her. I didn’t want…” How can he put it into words? He’s…gotten _used_ to those dark whispers, stopping up his little audios against them, focusing only on Selene. He can wield his Light to recall the brightness of Selene’s spirit despite the Stasis energies. They’ve even recently begun her being able to switch between Light and Dark on the fly. But it feels all so… _wrong._ And yet…

“You’re growing.” Ozy was pulled out of his musings, looking up at Eris.

“What?”

“The threat we face…” Eris paused. She needed to keep it simple. Ghosts…were creatures of the Light first and attended to themselves second. Ozy’s problems seemed to stem from the fact that he and Selene were evolving. They no longer fit in a neatly labeled box, something that Ozy seemed desperate to return to.

“You and Selene are growing. You…” Eris shifted her weight, eyes fixed on the Ghost. “You have…moved…hmm… The best way I can put it is past your original programming. You are not a serving drone, you are someone with their own thoughts, feelings...your own will.”

“My own will?” Ozy repeated. His little engine hummed as he thought over those words. 

“You are learning to not be so…blindly devoted. To think, to take all the factors of a situation into account. To be flexible.” Eris gestured with her other hand; the Stasis cool against her palm. 

“You and Selene are of the Light. And I suspect you always will be-her preference is for it after all, even with how far she has advanced in her studies of this gift the Darkness has given. But it matters not what the color of the power is, it’s how it’s used. The both of you have realized this.” Ozy listened in contemplative silence as Eris continued.

“Such feelings are normal. As are…errors.” 

“I could have lost her.” Ozy whispered. “She…saved us. But I can’t…I can’t get over…”  
“You have to, Little Light.” Here Eris knows she cannot sugarcoat this, no matter how much a part of her wants to. It’s still new to her to be gentle, to not snap and lash out—she owed Selene, Ikora-the others who had helped her—that much. 

“Selene relies on you, just as you rely on her. She seems to have forgiven you—otherwise I doubt you two would be here or running about as is your wont. It should be her you are talking to, not me. And…” Here Eris pauses. The next set of words are hard-and it’s something she’s still struggling with.

“You must forgive yourself.” For that also seems to be the crux of the Ghost’s problem. “Forgive yourself for being weak, Ozymandias. You are not perfect-no Ghost is. I would imagine if the Traveler had…a problem with this, it would have manifested by now.” No, it is about free will, Eris suspects. Maybe it always has been. There were Risen who refused to take up the mantle of Guardian—she very much annoyingly was currently cohabitating with one of the biggest examples of this out of necessity—

“Forgive myself.” Ozy repeats. He turns the four words over in his processor. 

“You must. Otherwise the Darkness will seize on your guilt, and use it against you.” Eris flexes her fingers, recalling the Hive fire. “And it starts by going inside and speaking to your other self. Become stronger from this.” Ozy hunches his shell in again, but Eris sees that his eye is brighter.

“…Thank you, Eris.” Screwing up his courage, Ozy floats as quickly as he can towards the hut door. Through it he can see Selene-or rather just only her hair, sticking out of the sleeping bag. The blast of warm air dispels the cold that had been sneaking it, and he doesn’t notice Eris’s sad smile as the door closes behind him. Floating over to the bag, Ozy hesitates, then dips down to gently fin-tap his Risen’s head.

“Selene?”


End file.
